Scenario lab - Reunion island

Presentation of the scenario lab of Reunion island

This scenario lab involves an isolated and densely populated tropical island. Sugarcane cultivation for export predominates, as do intensive livestock systems that require the importation of large quantities of synthetic fertilisers and concentrates. In addition, the island is facing issues related to food and energy dependence. Réunion Island should be able to reduce its carbon footprint while increasing its resource autonomy by transitioning to a circular bioeconomy that better exploits locally produced biomass.

The participants in this scenario lab will be the five CIRAD research units involved in the CAPTerre partnership programme along with their long-standing collaborators: a network of planters and livestock farmers, agricultural cooperatives, the island’s chamber of agriculture, private companies transforming biomass to create energy and serve agricultural purposes, regional governments, and national agencies. This work will exploit island-scale spatial data, existing knowledge on biophysical processes in the tropics, and the strong collaborations established during prior projects, such as GIROVAR, GABIR, and C@RUN.

It will focus on two types of scenarios involving the agricultural industry: land-use changes, which affect the forms of biomass produced on the island, and biomass recycling (e.g., livestock effluent, crop residues, organic waste produced by households and the agroindustry). The work will occur along three axes: (i) co-design of carbon neutrality scenarios with local stakeholders; ii) MAELIA-based integrated and spatialised modelling of the metabolic dynamics of Réunion Island’s agrifood system; and iii) multicriteria scenario assessments conducted with partners during workshops. This scenario lab will apply and assess the modules centred on livestock systems (WP1), environmental biorefineries (WP1), and regional LCA (WP1). In addition to the workshops, we will conduct individual interviews to assess how well the transition to low net carbon is going. To this end, we will use the methodological advances made during WP1.